Finland's dilemma / by Leonard Williams.

Finland's Dilemma

by

Leonard Williams

Summary

Finland's role as an active belligerent against Russia
was inevitable. A history of a thousand years of hostility and
bitter fighting between the Russians and the Finnish people
has made it impossible that Finland and Russia should fight
in common cause. Finnish armies will fight for -"ussia only
when Russia has conquered Finland and conscripted her men,

Finland's only purpose has been to proteot her independence
and the lives of her citizens. Therefore we in this country
should look at the Finnish problem with some tolerance least
we condemn them hastily and without understanding. The Finns
in their failing hour asked for aid from Germany the only
great power who could give it only to save themselves from a
fate abhorred by every Finnish citizen, life under a Russian
government. We in this country cannot understand this hatred
of Russia; but it is bred into every Finn and has Its foundation
in a thousand years of defensive fighting against Russia.
The citizens of the United States must not forget their pledge
of justice to all peoples even though that should mean the
thwarting of Russian ambitions.

Leonard Williams

Finland's Dilemma

Finland stands today In a tragic position. She Is
doomed to annihilation by the great powers of the world which
are pledged to the preservation of democratic government every-
where. The roots of Finland's sorrow are to be found In history,
The antipathy which exists between the Bos si ana and the Finns
has been made a thing which will never die by the twenty five
major wars fought in the past eight hundred years on Finnish
soil against the Russians. Throughout the wars of the earliest
times the Finnish people relied strongly upon their alliance
with Sweden for aid and support against the Buss ians . The
union of the Swedes and the Finns in one nation, Sweden-Finland,
proved Texy beneficial to the Finnish people. From the days
of the middle ages this nation continued as a vital force In
the north and remained a united nation until the times of the
Napoleonic disturbances. It was then In the year 1809 that
the Russians succeeded in annexing Finland after a war of
conquest. The Finnish people never became reconciled to
Russianization and at the first opportunity revolted. The
opportunity came in 1918 more than one hundred years after
the annexation when the Russian armies fighting Germany
collapsed. The Finns rose in revolution determined to be free
of Russian government forever.

The revolution against fl ua ai a was followed by bloody
fighting between Communistic elements supported from Russia and
the White faotlons within Finland. The Whites were victorious
but not without the a Id ©f a German army which intervened at a

decisive hour to ensure the victory of the Whites who were
failing in the fight against the Reds who were being supplied
from Russia. The aid tendered by the G-ermais at this critical
time was very Important in strengthening the ties between Finland
and Germany.

With the nation established the Finnish people went to
work with great zeal and determination to make the Ir oount ry a
fine place to live. They were determined to show the world
that free men and women living under a democratic system of
government conld make a better nation than the Russian system
ever oould. With her limited resources, without coal, iron,
or oil, and with only limited land of poor nuality i) r agricul-
ture, the Finns made their nation one of the finest in Northern
Europe in the short span of one generation in the y ars from
1918 to 1941. The literacy rate in Finland is one of the highest
in the world and higher education is shared by a greater propor-
tion of the people than in any other country. The eagerness with
which the Finns sent their most highly trained experts to countries
all over the world to become familiar with the most reoent
technological developments so that they might be applied without
loss of time to the development of the Finnish nation and the
attainment of the high standard of living which had already been
reached in other parts of the world but had been denied to the
Finnish people as part of the Russian Empire is an example of
the alertness and breadth of vision of the Finnish government.

The Finns were experiencing remarkable success with their
newly launched nation when the great oonfliots between the ever
expanding Germany and her neighbors caused reperous s iona in Finland.

The .Russians suspecting that Finland was planning a war against

her In collaboration with Germany suddenly made far reaching

have
demands upon Finland which would/ensured Finnish neutrality by

placing strategic fortifications, absolutely essential to the
defense of Finland against Kussian attack, in the control of
Russian armies. Finland attempted to compromise but that proved
to be impossible because Russia was confident that she could
crush Finland if she resisted. The negotiations came to a halt
with the Russian attack up Finland, ^he Russians were partly suc-
cessful in the war in that Finland ceded one third of her terri-
tory to Russia along with oertain important fortifications in the
ii

Aland islands. However the attitude of the Russians following
their victorious war became increasingly more insufferable and
it became obvious that their ultimate intention was the destruction
of the Finnish republic.

Within a year after the conclusion of the peaoe treaty
Russia attacked Finland again. A few weeks later Germany attacked
Russia with smashing blows and at the saae time Finland invited
Germany to send her armies through Finland to bolster Finnish
defenses which were crumbling under the sledge hammer attacks
of numerically superior Russian forces, The result of the
second war has been that Finland has regained all of her lost
territory and some territory formerly Russian with more advantageous
frontiers for defense.

Throughout all the years of war, devastating with its effects
on the nations manhood and the national eoonomy, Finlaid has
fought only to maintain its integrity as a nation against Russian
attaok, Finland accepted help from Germany only because the reject ion

of that aid would hare meant that the Finns would have become

one more of the so ores of peoples that have been s walla? ed

up and soattered by the Russian giant in its mission of conquest.

The United States is now at war with Germany and her
allies. While the United States was neutral prior to the out-
break of war the problem of Finnish-Amerioan relations wag
difficult at beat; and it now seems to be reaching the breaking
point. Many are to quick to say that any ally of Germany must
necessarily be our enemy. The state departmait warns Finland
that it must conclude a peace with Russia or suffer our dis-
pleasure. Fortunately the state department understands that it
is impossible for Finland to stop fighting because the only
condition for peace is the equivalent of absolute surrender.
It is possible that Russia's insistence upon a formal sever ance
of relations and a declaration of war may yet become so strong
that it cannot be sidestepped.

At that time a decision must be made* The United Nations
have no great love for Russia but all recognize the right of
the Russians to their homeland which has been theirs for centuries ;
but by the same token other peoples have the same right. Are we
to permit this nation to become a party to a Russian aggression
which is just as merciless as the wars of the Germans? This war
will have been in vain if Russia is permitted to glut herself
upon the flesh and blood of her smaller neighbors, ^'he world
will have fought to throw out one set of aggressors only to make
room for another* We must not become a party to a Russian

domination baaed on conquest. We should give a sympathetic ear
to the weary people of Finland, who have so many descendants on
these shores, as they ory out to the world in their desperate
and perhaps futile fight to make for themselves a nation to
call their own.

Leonard Williams